Search results
Paisley Underground is a musical genre that originated in California. It was particularly popular in Los Angeles, reaching a peak in the mid-1980s.
- The Salvation Army – “She Turns to Flowers”
- The Bangles – “The Real World”
- The Dream Syndicate – “Tell Me When It’S Over”
- The Rain Parade – “1 Hour ½ Ago”
- The Three O’Clock – “Jet Fighter”
- The Long Ryders – “10-5-60″
- True West – “Hollywood Holiday”
- Rainy Day – “I’ll Keep It with Mine”
- The Pandoras – “Hot Generation”
- Danny & Dusty – “Baby, We All Gotta Go Down”
Every element and idea associated with the Paisley Underground is present in this single, which opens with a blast of backwards guitars and a bright tapestry of pop harmonies. The Salvation Army were trying to sound out of time, and the flowery existentialism of the lyrics and the studious phrasing of the vocals only heightens that out-of-time sens...
The Bangles had some of the best hooks, the best melodies, and maybe the best songs of any Paisley Underground band, but their fame obscured just how good they actually were right out of the gate. Released in 1982, shortly before Michael Steele (from the Runaways) joined the line-up, their self-titled debut EP introduced a band nearly fully formed,...
One of the most fondly remembered albums to crawl out of the Paisley Underground, The Days Of Wine & Roseslooks east for inspiration. The Dream Syndicate, named after a 1960s experimental music project featuring LaMonte Young and Tony Conrad, were much more Velvet Underground than Buffalo Springfield, with drummer Dennis Duck and bass player Kendra...
Few Paisley bands were quite as self-aware as the Rain Parade, fronted by brothers Steven and David Roback. “What’s the point of looking back?” they ask on this standout from their debut, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip. “All you see is an empty track.” But the remainder of “1 Hour ½ Ago,” along with the rest of that landmark album, not only looks ...
The difference between the claustrophobic noise rock of the Dream Syndicate and the peppy energy of the Three O’Clock suggests that the Paisley Underground was either an extremely wide umbrella or possibly a useless term. “Jet Fighter” was a sizable hit on college radio stations, essentially acting as an advertisement for the LA scene with its chim...
The title track from the Long Ryders’ debut EP is a song about being in a rock band and writing a rock song. Over a hyperactive guitar riff and a relentless drumbeat, Sid Griffin outlines the rules of the scene and the ingredients for a good tune. “If the dancers don’t feel it, nobody’s gonna move!” As they chant those obscure numbers on the chorus...
Did you know that Los Angeles has a seedy side? That’s the subject of True West’s signature song, which chronicles a motel hook-up between two people who probably don’t want to be photographed together. “She says she hasn’t done this much at all,” sings Russ Tolman, like he’s some old-school private dick sticking a camera through someone else’s bli...
Rainy Day was the brainchild of the Rain Parade’s David Roback, a scene-specific supergroup featuring members of the Bangles, Opal, and the Three O’Clock. The group released only one EP of covers that provided a roadmap to the Paisley Underground. Kendra Smith singing “Holocaust” is nearly definitive, Michael Quercio managed to make “Sloop John B” ...
Primary Pandora Paula Pierce had a gift for mimicking the riffs and melodies of her favorite 45s, blurring the line between tribute and theft (“I’m Here I’m Gone” barely inverts “Satisfaction,” for example). “Hot Generation,” however, steamrollers any comparisons, stomping its ways out of the garage and careening recklessly all the way to the beach...
The Lost Weekend, this supergroup’s first album, certainly lived up to its name: Danny (Dan Stuart of Green On Red) and Dusty (Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate) and a loose crew of locals spent a beer-fueled weekend recording a raucous set of country-rock tunes alternately hilarious and harrowing. A document of the scene’s growing fascination with...
- Stephen Deusner
Sep 14, 2021 · Music. Paisley Underground: History and Sound of Paisley Underground. Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Sep 14, 2021 • 4 min read. In 1980s Los Angeles, a collective of rock bands revived the psychedelic jangle-pop of the 1960s and created the Paisley Underground scene.
The Paisley Underground was the most distinctive subgenre of jangle pop in the mid-'80s. Like jangle pop, the bands in the paisley underground revived the clean, chiming textures of folk rock, but they had a more psychedelic bent to their sound.
- Game Theory Lolita Nation (1987) Perhaps – contentious claim alert – the scene’s finest offering, a real ambitious labour of love for main man Scott Miller who mashes up the sombre version of Big Star with jangle-pop deluxe and then blends it with blasts of noise and random snippets of randomness.
- Rain Parade Emergency Third Rail Power Trip (1983) As 60’s sounding as the scene got. Tinged with both psych and folk-rock at the same time as hammering that Television extended work-out thing.
- The Dream Syndicate Days of Wine and Roses (1982) The first great P.U. album. Teetering on the edge of breakdown throughout, Wynn & co. reimagine the Velvets in the East Coast sunshine and set the grunge template while they’re at it.
- Green on Red Gas Food Lodging (1985) Their third and indubitably their best LP, G.F.L. invents desert roots-rock and spreads the Paisley tentacles across the whole of the Southern States.
Nov 12, 2023 · 1. “Tell Me When It’s Over,” Dream Syndicate (1982) Arguably the most critically adored of the Paisley Underground bands, Dream Syndicate took their name from one of John Cale’s...
The Paisley Underground was the most distinctive subgenre of jangle pop in the mid-'80s. Like jangle pop, the bands in the paisley underground revived the clean, chiming textures of folk rock, but they had a more psychedelic bent to their sound.
